I've been working towards making a damascus steel version of Sting as I think it would fit in quite nicely with the elven aesthetic. My previous couple of weekends have been just building the layer count on the billet, but today I got to do the rough forging to shape, and it turns out I allowed more steel than I needed for it. I had planned to make it as an 'in universe' build, i.e. it would be the size of the dagger in a human hand, not the scaled up version that was used for Elijah Wood. However, forging it out has left it far bigger than I needed.
So, suggestions taken, what should I do? Should I just cut it down and make the smaller one anyway, or should I try and stretch it a little further to make the scaled up size dagger?
I'm sure people are curious how I got to this point, so photos below.
I didn't start taking pics right at the start, so these blocks are all 35 layers of steel already forge welded and drawn down to about 12mm thick.
Tack welded together for the next forge weld, 35 layers x 5 brings us to 175 layers. Then forged down to about 12mm thick again. The bar's about 24" long.
Once that was forged down, I cut it into 4 again, and at this point I wanted to see how it was looking, so one of the pieces has been dipped in ferric chloride to etch it lightly and reveal the patter. It's not that dramatic as it's still relatively thick for only 175 layers. The more it gets compressed, the more layers will appear at the surface.
Again, tack welded and into the forge. Stacking the 4 pieces beings us to 700 layers.
Here's the billet. Part of this will be used to make some kitchen knives and you can see where I've marked in chalk how much I think I'll need for the tang (at the right), and then the blade. I was wildly out on how much I needed for the blade.
And next to my cardboard cutout guide.
And here's where we are. I haven't started forging in any bevels yet. That's next weekend.
So, suggestions taken, what should I do? Should I just cut it down and make the smaller one anyway, or should I try and stretch it a little further to make the scaled up size dagger?
I'm sure people are curious how I got to this point, so photos below.
I didn't start taking pics right at the start, so these blocks are all 35 layers of steel already forge welded and drawn down to about 12mm thick.
Tack welded together for the next forge weld, 35 layers x 5 brings us to 175 layers. Then forged down to about 12mm thick again. The bar's about 24" long.
Once that was forged down, I cut it into 4 again, and at this point I wanted to see how it was looking, so one of the pieces has been dipped in ferric chloride to etch it lightly and reveal the patter. It's not that dramatic as it's still relatively thick for only 175 layers. The more it gets compressed, the more layers will appear at the surface.
Again, tack welded and into the forge. Stacking the 4 pieces beings us to 700 layers.
Here's the billet. Part of this will be used to make some kitchen knives and you can see where I've marked in chalk how much I think I'll need for the tang (at the right), and then the blade. I was wildly out on how much I needed for the blade.
And next to my cardboard cutout guide.
And here's where we are. I haven't started forging in any bevels yet. That's next weekend.
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